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MONTREAL - For the past two weekends, Thomas Daigle has been anchoring Montreal’s least-watched television newscast.

That’s because the newscasts never made it to air. They were rehearsals, preparing Daigle, weather presenter Sabrina Marandola and the technical crew for the launch of new weekend television newscasts on CBC Montreal, the first of which is on Saturday. Other than the minor detail of not actually being broadcast, the newscasts were real in every way, done live at their scheduled times with real reports from CBC reporters. According to news director Mary-Jo Barr, the ones from last weekend were more than good enough to be put on the air.

While the CBC is tightening its belt to make $200 million in budget cuts over the next three years – including a devastating 80 per cent cut to Radio Canada International, whose offices are next door to CBC Montreal in the basement of Maison Radio-Canada, the public broadcaster is proceeding with its five-year “2015: Everyone, Every Way” plan, which is adding more regional services across the country.

In addition to the weekend TV newscasts, CBC Montreal has added weekend radio newscasts in the afternoons. As of April 21, instead of only having local news in the mornings, radio listeners have local hourly newscasts by announcer Katherine Canty until 4 p.m. on Saturdays and Sundays.

The TV newscasts will be slaves to CBC’s schedule. The Saturday newscast will be from 6 to 6:30 p.m., replacing The National and leading in to Hockey Night in Canada. A late newscast isn’t practical on Saturdays because it would come in the middle of the West Coast hockey game. Similarly on Sundays, 6 p.m. is in the middle of the weekly children’s movie, so Sunday will feature only a 10-minute late newscast, from 10:55 to 11:05 p.m., right after The National, as is the case during the week.

Daigle, 25, is from Quispamsis, N.B., a small town near Saint John that “looks much like some of Montreal’s smaller suburbs – lots of green space and no shortage of Tim Hortons,” he said. Daigle previously worked at CJAD, Global Montreal and Radio-Canada Acadie. All were newsrooms, he notes, where he had to work in the minority language. He has no previous anchoring experience, but Barr described him as “a really strong live reporter” who is “engaging on camera, a great communicator.”

Marandola, 31, will be doing weather on the weekends on TV as well as on the radio on weekend afternoons. She has filled in for weeknight weatherman Frank Cavallaro a few times over the past few months, and has developed a passion for the weather. She suggests that’s partly because she always feels cold. “From the first time I replaced Frank, I knew I loved this,” she said. “To me, it’s really (about) telling a weather story (in a way that’s) compelling and engaging.”

Marandola has been at CBC for four years, and previously worked at 940 News and The Suburban. Aside from weather, Marandola says she has a passion for pizza and public speaking. She also admits to an obsession with shoes, and is often seen in bright colours.

Both Daigle and Marandola work full-time and continue to do their other jobs three days a week. Daigle is also a videojournalist and Marandola expects to split her time between news and current affairs.

The TV newscasts themselves won’t be much different from what CBC Montreal viewers are used to. But there won’t be a sportscaster on weekends. Instead, sports news will be covered by the handful of regular reporters working that day, though Barr expects by the time the Canadiens are playing again at least one reporter will be dedicated to sports news on each day.

The expanded newscasts aren’t the only changes at CBC Montreal:

A new managing director for CBC’s English services in Quebec, Shelagh Kinch, started on Monday. She replaces Pia Marquard, who resigned in March for health reasons.

The station also has a new set, built in early April, which has a smaller anchor desk, large flat screens in the background and energy-saving LED lighting. Barr didn’t have a figure on how much it cost, but said it came from penny-pinching in last year’s budget, and she said they saved money by having the set built in-house.

Last December, the station began broadcasting its evening newscast in high definition, becoming the first regional CBC station in Canada to do so. Operations Manager Bruno Gaulin explained that the conversion cost about $1.1 million, and some elements – such as live reports in the field – are still being shot in standard definition and converted to HD.

It will take more than high definition to put up serious competition to market leader CTV on weekends. The National currently has 11,500 viewers in the Montreal market Saturdays at 6 p.m. and 23,500 Sundays at 10 p.m. CTV Montreal’s weekend newscasts have about 120,000 viewers at 6 p.m. and 55,000 viewers at 11 p.m. on average.

CBC News Montreal’s new weekend newscasts air at 6 p.m. Saturdays and 10:55 p.m. Sundays. Sunday’s newscast was delayed because the Philadelphia/New Jersey hockey game has pushed the start of The National past 10 p.m.

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